The invention relates generally to water level monitoring and control systems. In particular, the invention relates to a software-based water level monitoring and control system used with conventional steam boilers that sets-up, monitors and records system functions, safety features, diagnostic testing histories and other functions.
In traditional steam boiler systems, it is critical to maintain a sufficient level of water within the main boiler to, among other things, sustain proper boiler metal operating temperatures. The loss of a significant amount of water from the system can result in the catastrophic failure of the boiler. The super temperatures reached by the boilers with little or no water may cause damage and dangerous operating conditions.
In an attempt to monitor the level of the water in the boiler, it is common to use a float or other similar device that rises and falls with the actual level of the surface of the water inside the boiler. In such applications, the lowering of the float below a predefined level will cause a safety condition known as a low-water cutoff or (LWCO). In response to such a condition, the system is shut-down prior to even more dangerous conditions being created due to exceedingly low water levels within the boiler.
Because of the importance of knowing what will happen as a result of variations in the boiler water level, testing of the safety procedures of the system occurs frequently, often including testing of redundant back-up systems. Indeed, testing of such parameters as low-water cutoff levels, auxiliary low-water cutoff levels and blowdown times is routinely conducted in most boiler systems. Still, there is an ever-present need to provide reliable systems for setting, maintaining and recording the results of the tests of the boiler water levels and the fail-safe responses to a particularly low water level.
Also, there is a need for real-time information gathering and display, as well as historical data or histories to accomplish the regulation of these key parameters in the boiler
Moreover, it would be beneficial to be able to access such information in a computerized environment.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a system that creates software-based data histories and other test data compilations to permit a user that accesses the water level control system to view the test data compilations, as well as to monitor the system's status.